COVID-19 situation is in control in Delhi, says Satyendar Jain; portable mohalla clinics in the pipeline

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday (August 30) said the COVID-19 situation is in control as the national capital continues to register low COVID-19 cases, while addressing the mediapersons.

The Health Minister said, "The COVID-19 situation is under control in Delhi. The positivity rate in the national capital is 0.4 per cent. The government has decided to establish more than 6,800 ICU beds in seven hospitals within six months."

The national capital reported 20 cases of the coronavirus and one death on Monday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.04 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here. The capital had not recorded any fatality due to the infection in the past four days.

The low number of cases can also be attributed to fewer tests (51,387) conducted the previous day. With the new cases, the overall infection tally in the city climbs to 14,37,736. Over 14.12 lakh patients have recovered from the disease. The death toll stands at 25,081.

Twenty-eight people have succumbed to the disease this month so far. The cumulative death toll was 25,053 on July 31.

On Sunday, the city reported 31 coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 0.04 per cent. On Saturday, it reported 29 COVID-19 cases. There are 375 active cases in Delhi, of which 88 are in home isolation. The number of containment zones stands at 144, the bulletin said.

Delhi battled a brutal second wave of the pandemic that claimed a large number of lives, with the shortage of oxygen at hospitals across the city adding to the woes.

On April 20, Delhi had reported 28,395 cases, the highest in the city since the beginning of the pandemic. On April 22, the case positivity rate was 36.2 per cent, the highest so far. The highest number of 448 deaths was reported on May 3.

The city government has been ramping up health infrastructure to prevent a repeat of the crisis witnessed during the peak of the second wave in April and May.

Steps have been taken to increase the number of hospital beds to accommodate up to 37,000 patients and to become self-reliant in terms of oxygen supply.

According to officials, around 160 PSA oxygen generation plants with a total capacity of 148.11 metric tonnes are being installed at various government and private hospitals in the city. While 66 plants are being installed in Delhi government hospitals, 10 are being set up in central government hospitals and 84 in private healthcare facilities.

Around 7,000 ICU beds are also being added at government health care facilities in Shalimar Bagh, Kirari, Sarita Vihar, Sultanpuri, Raghuveer Nagar, and GTB Hospital and Chacha Nehru Hospital. Notably, there are currently 10,000 ICU beds in the capital. 

Portable mohalla clinics envisioned in Delhi 

The Delhi government is constructing two mohalla clinics inside portable shipping containers in the city's Shakurbasti area, which the authorities plan to replicate in dense cluster colonies where creating health infrastructure in a dedicated building is a challenge owing to space constraints.

The Delhi government opted for this model in order to tide over the issues of land posed by DDA and civic bodies, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.

Jain told reporters, "Land is a subject that comes under the Centre. Politics has been happening with the construction of mohalla clinics. DDA had promised in the Delhi High Court that it would give land for mohalla clinics but it did not given us anything for even a single mohalla clinic."

He furthe said, "The municipal corporations has also been troubling us. What we did was that we took a shipping container and prepared a readymade mohalla clinic." 

Mohalla clinics is one of the flagship initiatives of the Kejriwal government to boost the primary healthcare system in Delhi. It has a doctor and a midwife-cum-nurse, providing an array of diagnostic services and essential medicines free of cost.

(With Agency Inputs)

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